1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the printing of information onto a material, and more particularly, to determining the status of a label, positioning the label, and printing information onto the label, when the label is attached to a roll of label stock.
2. Background Art
The number of labels and the presence of undesirable partial labels at the beginning of a roll of label stock are artifacts of the label manufacturing process. During the manufacture of label stock, the length of the label stock that has passed through a manufacturing machine is the determining parameter for the ending point of one roll of label stock and the beginning point of the subsequent roll of label stock. The positional accuracy of the manufacturing equipment is such that the demarcation point between label rolls is random and has no positional relationship to the die cut label on the continuous label carrier. Therefore, it is highly probable that the first label of a previously unused roll of label stock will begin with a partial label.
On the other hand, during normal use of a label printer such as a DYMO LabelWriter printer, the user typically separates individual full printed labels at the exit point of the printer after the completion of a print job. Therefore, the first label of a previously used roll of label stock will typically always begin with a full label.
The method that is currently used by label printers to eliminate the potential for printing onto a partial label the first time a printer prints onto a newly loaded roll of label stock is to advance the label stock forward until a top of from (TOF) mark is detected by the TOF sensor during the label stock roll loading process. While this insures that the label printer will always print to a full label, the process always wastes a full or partial label. Because a previously loaded label stock roll always begins with a full label, this is a deterrent for users to change label rolls and potentially effects overall label usage.
Earlier efforts to solve this problem have failed because they required the first label to be advanced completely past the platen/print head interface point and through the angle produced by this transition. This frequently causes the label printer to malfunction as the die cut label is likely to peel away from the label stock carrier as it is reverse fed through the platen/print head transition angle.
Seiko Instruments USA, Inc. (hereinafter “Seiko”) manufactures label printers and label stock. Some of the label stock produced by Seiko is believed to include a series of marks printed on the back side of the label stock. Each of these marks is believed to correspond with a label adhered to the front side of the label stock. Each of the marks is believed to be offset from the leading edge of the corresponding label by a standard distance. No matter what type of label is adhered to the front side of the label stock, each of the marks is believed to be offset from the leading edge of the corresponding label by the standard distance. Therefore, Seiko label printers are not believed to be capable of determining whether the first label in a roll of label stock is a full label or a partial label, nor are Seiko label printers believed to be able to determine any other parameter associated with the label stock.
Accordingly, there exists a need for determining whether the first label in the roll of label stock is a whole label and positioning the first label appropriately in the printer.